Common gateway to call control systems

ABSTRACT

A method of and apparatus for supporting intelligent call routing (ICR) systems multiple vendors, in a vendor neutral fashion using a computer is described. One embodiment has a voice program send a call routing request using an HTTP format to a call routing program. The call routing program decodes the HTTP request and identifies the appropriate vendor-specific communication format and communications method for talking to the ICR system specified in the HTTP request. The call routing program sends the request and receives the answers from the ICR system in the vendor specific formats. The call routing program provides the ICR system response back to the voice program in a vendor neutral fashion. This approach allows voice programs to easily be written that work with multiple ICR systems and allow component reuse of call routing code amongst programs that end up working with multiple systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] This invention relates to the field of phone basedcommunications. In particular, the invention relates to methods forproviding a uniform interface to call center integration equipment thatis vendor neutral.

[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0004] A variety of vendor specific call center integration equipment ismanufactured. More specifically call routing equipment is used tocontrol, and monitor, allocation of calls amongst a variety of callcenter facilities and provide support for database lookups and the like.The equipment is designed for programming using vendor specificprogramming interfaces and/or communication protocols. Accordingly onewould use a different approach to obtain information from a Cisco callrouting equipment than a Genesys call routing equipment.

[0005] This approach is limiting in the context of a phone applicationplatform where calls for many vendors are being handled by a singleplatform. It additionally makes it difficult to describe programs in avendor-neutral fashion.

[0006] Accordingly, what is needed is a method and apparatus forhandling call center integration equipment in a vendor neutral fashion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0007]FIG. 1A illustrates the components of a phone application platformsupporting the vendor neutral call center integration.

[0008]FIG. 1B illustrates the use of the system of FIG. 1A in callcenter integration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] A method of and apparatus for supporting intelligent call routing(ICR) systems multiple vendors, in a vendor neutral fashion using acomputer is described. One embodiment has a voice program send a callrouting request using an HTTP format to a call routing program. The callrouting program decodes the HTTP request and identifies the appropriatevendor-specific communication format and communications method fortalking to the ICR system specified in the HTTP request. The callrouting program sends the request and receives the answers from the ICRsystem in the vendor specific formats. The call routing program providesthe ICR system response back to the voice program in a vendor neutralfashion. This approach allows voice programs to easily be written thatwork with multiple ICR systems and allow component reuse of call routingcode amongst programs that end up working with multiple systems.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] A. Introduction

[0011] A method and apparatus for interfacing with call center routingequipment in a vendor neutral fashion is described. This approach can beused for a number of straightforward purposes from straightforward callrouting to allowing interactive hold.

[0012] The invention will be described in greater detail as follows.First, a number of definitions useful to understanding the invention arepresented. Then, the basic architecture for a phone application platformsupporting the method is presented. Finally, the processes and featuresare presented in greater detail.

[0013] B. Definitions

[0014] 1. Telephone Identifying Information

[0015] For the purposes of this application, the term telephoneidentifying information will be used to refer to ANI (automaticnumbering identification) information, CID (caller identification)information, and/or some other technique for automatically identifyingthe source of a call and/or other call setup information. For example,telephone identifying information may include a dialed numberidentification service (DNIS). Similarly, CID information may includetext data including the subscriber's name and/or address, e.g. “JaneDoe”. Other examples of telephone identifying information might includethe type of calling phone, e.g. wireless, pay phone, and/or hospitalphone. Additionally, the telephone identifying information may includewireless carrier specific identifying information, e.g. location ofwireless phone now, etc. Also, signaling system seven (SS7) informationmay be included in the telephone identifying information.

[0016] 2. User Profile

[0017] A user profile is a collection of information about a particularuser. The user profile typically includes collections of differentinformation of relevance to the user, e.g., account number, name,contact information, user-id, default preferences, and the like.Notably, the user profile contains a combination of explicitly madeselections and implicitly made selections.

[0018] Explicitly made selections in the user profile stem from requestsby the user to the system. For example, the user might add business newsto the main topic list. Typically, explicit selections come in the formof a voice, or touch-tone command, to save a particular location, e.g.“Remember this”, “Bookmark it”, “shortcut this”, pound (#) keytouch-tone, etc., or through adjustments to the user profile madethrough the web interface using a computer.

[0019] Additionally, the user profile provides a useful mechanism forassociating telephone identifying information with a single user, orentity. For example, Jane Doe may have a home phone, a work phone, acell phone, and/or some other telephones. Suitable telephone identifyinginformation for each of those phones can be associated in a singleprofile for Jane. This allows the system to provide uniformity ofcustomization to a single user, irrespective of where they are callingfrom.

[0020] In contrast, implicit selections come about through the conductand behavior of the user. For example, if the user repeatedly asks forthe weather in Palo Alto, Calif., the system may automatically providethe Palo Alto weather report without further prompting. In otherembodiments, the user may be prompted to confirm the system's implicitchoice, e.g. the system might prompt the user “Would you like me toinclude Palo Alto in the standard weather report from now on?”

[0021] Additionally, the system may allow the user to customize thesystem to meet her/his needs better. For example, the user may beallowed to control the verbosity of prompts, the dialect used, and/orother settings for the system. These customizations can be made eitherexplicitly or implicitly. For example if the user is providing commandsbefore most prompts are finished, the system could recognize that a lessverbose set of prompts is needed and implicitly set the user's promptingpreference to briefer prompts.

[0022] 3. Topics and Content

[0023] A topic is any collection of similar content. Topics may bearranged hierarchically as well. For example, a topic might be businessnews, while subtopics might include stock quotes, market report, andanalyst reports. Within a topic different types of content areavailable. For example, in the stock quotes subtopic, the content mightinclude stock quotes. The distinction between topics and the contentwithin the topics is primarily one of degree in that each topic, orsubtopic, will usually contain several pieces of content.

[0024] 4. Demographic and Psychographic Profiles

[0025] Both demographic profiles and psychographic profiles containinformation relating to a user. Demographic profiles typically includefactual information, e.g. age, gender, marital status, income, etc.Psychographic profiles typically include information about behaviors,e.g. fun loving, analytical, compassionate, fast reader, slow reader,etc. As used in this application, the term demographic profile will beused to refer to both demographic and psychographic profiles.

[0026] 5. Cookie

[0027] The term cookie, as used herein, refers to a structured dataelement formatted according to the general principles of IETF RFC 2109and/or some other state management standard.

[0028] A brief review of RFC 2109 may be useful. The core structure of acookie is a name-value pair. The name is a token for identifying thecookie, e.g. “Customer”, and the value is the value of thatcorresponding token, e.g. “Jane Doe”.

[0029] Implicitly, each cookie is associated with the sending domain.According to RFC 2109, the implicitly set domain is the originatingdomain to which the HTTP request was sent. For example, if an HTTP GETrequest is sent to the request host “www.example.com”, then the cookieset in response to that request would be implicitly associated with“www.example.com”

[0030] Additionally, a number of optional fields can be set, forexample: a different domain for which the cookie is valid (Domain); atime to live (Max-Age); a version string (Version); etc. The phrases inparenthesis correspond to the RFC 2109 standard field names for theoptions.

[0031] C. Architecture

[0032] First, the hardware and software architecture of a systemincluding an embodiment of the invention will be described withreference to FIGS. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates a system including embodimentsof the invention used to support phone applications, including theasynchronous communication application. The system of FIG. 2 can be usedto allow deployment of phone applications without the need forspecialized hardware and/or software.

[0033] The following lists the elements of FIG. 2 and describes theirinterconnections. FIG. 2 includes the telephone 200A, a telephonenetwork 204, a telephone gateway 207, a phone application platform 210,a VoiceXML browsers and supporting servers 212, a network 222, anapplication provider platform 220, a brand X ICR gateway and equipment224, an agent station 230, a telephone 200B, and a computer 232. Thetelephone 200A is coupled in communication with the telephone network204. The telephone network 204 is coupled in communication with thetelephone gateway 207 and the application provider platform 220 (in someembodiments the telephone network 204 may be coupled to the agentstation 230 directly and/or a call center having multiple agentstations.) The telephone gateway 207 is coupled in communication withthe phone application platform 210. The network 222 is coupled incommunication with the phone application platform 210 and theapplication provider platform 220.

[0034] The following describes each of the elements of FIG. 2 in greaterdetail. The telephone 200A is a telephone interface to the phoneapplication platform 210. The telephone 200A may be any sort oftelephone and/or wireless telephone. For example the telephone 200A maybe a land line phone, a PBX telephone, a satellite phone, a wirelesstelephone, and/or any other type of communication device capable ofproviding voice communication and/or touch-tone signals over thetelephone network 204. However, any audio signal carrying interfacecould be used.

[0035] The telephone network 204 may be the public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) and/or some other type of telephone network. For example,some embodiments of the invention may allow users with a voice overInternet Protocol (IP) phone to access the phone application platform210. The telephone network 204 is coupled to the telephone gateway 207that allows the voice communications and/or touch-tone signals from thetelephone network 204 to reach the phone application platform 210 inusable form. Similarly, the telephone gateway 207 allows audio signalsgenerated by the phone application platform 210 to be sent over thetelephone network 204 to respective telephones, e.g. the telephone 200A.The telephone network 204 generally represents an audio signal carryingnetwork.

[0036] The phone application platform 210 is comprised of one or morecomputers providing the VoiceXML browsers and supporting servers 212.(In this embodiment, VoiceXML is one of the implementation languages.)The particular configuration shown is designed to support outsourced, orhosted, telephony provisioning as seen by the separation of theapplication provider platform 220 from the phone application platform210. This allows the phone services to be provided by a different legalentity than the application and avoids the need of the legal entityproviding the call center to be aware of difficult telecommunicationsprovisioning issues associated with running the phone applicationplatform 210. A more detailed description of one possible embodiment ofthe phone application platform 210 and features for working with audiocontent see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/431,002, entitled“Streaming Content Over a Telephone Interface”, having inventors HadiPartovi, et. al., filed 01 Nov. 1999, and assigned to the assignee ofthe current application.

[0037] Having described the basic architecture and some details, we nowturn to implementation and other features in greater detail.

[0038] D. Implementation

[0039] A helpful starting point is to understand how ICR, or intelligentcall routing, works. Vendors such as Cisco (Geotel brand) and Genesysare the dominant providers of ICR hardware and systems in the UnitedStates. In a traditional setting, the application provider has todevelop an entire call center system, including any phone applications,e.g. DTMF front end menu, etc. The ICR systems are used to take theinputs to the DTMF systems and control the routing of the calls to callagents. The more advanced ICR setups use database lookups (database notshown in elements 222 or 224 of FIG. 1A) to identify customer recordsand perform call routing.

[0040] Typical ICR decisions would be based on the database lookup,availability of agents at particular call center, and/or specialties ofthe agents and the correspondence of the same to the customer's needs. Aconcrete example may help, MegaBank has a single 800# where customerscan get banking services or insurance products. They call the 800# andpress “1” for banking and “2” for insurance. In that case, the ICRsystem would route the call to an appropriate banking or insurancerepresentative.

[0041] When these traditional prompting systems are built they have beendesigned to interoperate with the specific ICR systems used by anapplication provider. Thus, if MegaBank changes from Cisco to GenesysICR systems, their entire application would have to be re-coded to takeadvantage of the system.

[0042] Turning back to the present invention and the basic configurationof FIG. 1A, the process for using an ICR gateway in a vendor independentfashion will be described with reference to the process flow arrows(dashed lines) of FIG. 1B.

[0043] The process starts with the phone call 300A from the telephone200A. In this example, the telephone 200A is being used by a customer ofthe application provider platform 220. Over the phone call 300A, theuser of the telephone 200A can interact with a voice application runningon the phone application platform 210. In one embodiment the applicationis servers to the phone application platform 210 across the network 222,e.g. from a web server (not shown).

[0044] At some point in the application, the customer requests to speakto a live agent (either implicitly or explicitly). At that point, therunning VoiceXML application (VoiceXML is one of several possibleapplication programming languages that may be available on the phoneapplication platform 210), issues a vendor neutral transfer request 310to an ICR gateway 214. The format of the vendor neutral transfer request310 will be discussed in greater detail below.

[0045] Continuing the process, the ICR gateway 214 responds to thevendor neutral transfer request 310 by generating an appropriate vendorspecific request 320. The ICR gateway 214 needs to be programmed asingle time for each supported brand/variety of ICR equipment. In oneembodiment, one or more data are kept on the ICR gateway to specify theequipment vendor for a particular application provider. For example, asimple application URI to vendor table could be maintained along withthe address of the gateway, e.g.:

[0046] http://www.example.com/application1.vxml cisco-prot-1192.168.168.10

[0047] http://www.example.com/application2.vxml geotel-prot-4192.168.168.56

[0048] Other information such as encryption, specific dedicated (orvirtual) network connections to use could also be specified. In otherembodiments, the vendor neutral request 310 specifies a specific ICR,e.g. the vendor X ICR 224, by a mutually agreed upon name, e.g.“MegaBankMainICR” for which suitable information is maintained in theICR gateway 214 (such as that shown above) to enable the generation ofthe vendor specific request 320.

[0049] The vendor X ICR gateway and equipment 224 then process thevendor specific request 320 and returns a vendor specific response 340to the ICR gateway 214. The ICR gateway would then take the response 340and provide the VoiceXML browser VoiceXML code to effect the transfer350. There are two predominant embodiments. In the first embodiment theVoiceXML code 350 is dynamically generated by the ICR gateway 214 (muchlike a CGI program might generate dynamic HTML for rendering in a webbrowser). In the other configuration, the VoiceXML code 350 comprisessending one or more predetermined VoiceXML events and setting one ormore VoiceXML variables.

[0050] In either event VoiceXML code (either the code 350 or theremaining code in the execution flow after the events are thrown backfrom the ICR gateway 214) are responsible for effecting the instructionsindicated by the vendor X ICR gateway 224. For this example, theresponse 340 indicated to transfer the caller to the phone number+1(800) 555-5555 and include dialed digits “987654321”. In this example,the ICR gateway 214 threw events in the VoiceXML code 350 back to thethen running VoiceXML application indicating that a transfer wasrequested. If the application is correctly programmed, a transfer willresult; shown as the phone call 300B using “transfer-connect”, alsoknown as “take back and transfer”. In some embodiments the call istromboned with the phone application platform 210 staying on the line toallow the interactive voice application to resume after the trombonedleg of the phone call ends.

[0051] The phone call 300B couples the phone 200A in communication withthe application provider platform 220, or more specifically the callcenter equipment at the application provider platform 220. The vendor XICR gateway and equipment 224 is responsible for interacting with theapplication provider's equipment to route the phone call 300B to anagent, e.g. at the agent station 230, and provide any necessary screenpops 360 to the agent's computer 232. The screen pops allow an agent'sscreen to be pre-loaded with information about the customer, e.g. fromdatabase lookups, user dialed digits, the caller's telephone identifyinginformation, and more.

[0052] Vendor Neutral Request Format Details

[0053] The format of the vendor neutral request 310 and the VoiceXMLcode to effect the transfer 350 will now be considered in greaterdetail. The basic request format is a URI transmitted using the HTTPprotocol between the VoiceXML browser 212 that is executing the currentapplication and the ICR gateway 214. The following shows one possibleformat for the vendor neutral request:

[0054] http://<icr gateway>/<icr path>/?ICRName=<icr system name>

[0055] &ANI=<telephone identifying information>&DID=<user/app supplieddata>

[0056] Where <icr gateway> is a valid method of specifying the ICRgateway 214 according to the URI syntax rules, <icr path> is theappropriate path portion for the URI, where <icr system name> is adefined name for specifying an ICR as known to the ICR gateway 214,where ANI is a portion of the telephone identifying informationassociated with the telephone 200A and where DID is user and/orapplication supplied data, e.g. dialed digits.

[0057] A specific example of placing a vendor neutral request fromVoiceXML code may be helpful as shown by this short listing: <subdialogsrc=“http://icrgateway.tellme.com/servlet/com.tellme.irc.TransferInfo?ICRName=MegaBank&amp;ANI={session.telephone.ani} &amp;DID=987654321”> <catch event=“icr.error”> <audio>There was an ICR error.</audio></catch> ... <catch event=“icr.normal”> <audio>The ICR says I shouldtransfer you to {session.icr.Label}</audio> </catch> ... </subdialog>

[0058] The ellipses (“ . . . ”) indicate omitted code that might testfor other events indicating result codes such as busy states, a defaultrouting action, and more. The specific event names can be modified for aparticular implementation as can the variable name(s) containing the ICRresponses.

[0059] A more typical result on catching a transfer request would lookas follows: <catch event=“icr.normal”> <transferdest={session.icr.Label} /> </catch>

[0060] As the above example actually accomplishes a call transfer to therequested destination.

[0061] Depending on the capabilities of the particular ICR system theremay be one or more types of requests, the above example was for“TransferInfo”, but other more request types are also possible dependingon the capabilities of ICR systems generally, e.g. “WaitTime”, whichmight return the expected wait time for an agent, e.g. throwing theevent “icr.waittime” with session.icr.waittime set to the wait time orthrowing “icr.unsupported” if the specific vendor's ICR doesn't supportthat query type.

[0062] A waiting time strategy is one example where the phoneapplication platform can interact extremely well with ICR type systems.That is because if the phone application platform 210 has access toapplications providing voice portal-style functions, e.g. access tonews, information, entertainment, shopping, and other content, a usercan accomplish other tasks and be entertained while she waits for anagent to become available.

[0063] Depending on how the VoiceXML browsers 212 are implemented thismay create some problems. Both the current VoiceXML 1.0 standard andproposals for VoiceXML 2.0 do not easily handle asynchronous events ofthe type described above One approach is to periodically send additionalqueries. This however requires that each VoiceXML application running onthe VoiceXML browsers 212 be modified to repeatedly request“WaitingTime” until it reaches a predetermined amount, e.g. 15-20seconds and then send a “TransferInfo” request.

[0064] A more logical approach would be to be able to specify a handlerin the VoiceXML browsers 212 to periodically poll the “WaitingTime” andautomatically effect the transfer when ready. With this approach it maybe more logical to use a tromboned-type transfer so that if the userbecomes engaged in a useful activity (e.g. voice commerce) while holdingfor a live agent she can resume the other activity at the end of thetransfer.

E. CONCLUSION

[0065] In some embodiments, processes and apparatus of FIGS. 1A-1B canbe implemented using hardware based approaches, software basedapproaches, and/or a combination of the two. In some embodiments, theICR gateway 214 uses one or more computer programs that are included inone or more computer usable media such as CD-ROMs, floppy disks, orother media.

[0066] Some embodiments of the invention are included in anelectromagnetic wave form. The electromagnetic waveform comprisesinformation such as the ICR gateway 214. The electromagnetic waveformmay include the programs accessed over a network.

[0067] The foregoing description of various embodiments of the inventionhas been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It isnot intended to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Manymodifications and equivalent arrangements will be apparent.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of supporting intelligent call routing(ICR) systems of at least a first vendor in a vendor neutral fashionusing a computer system, the method comprising: receiving a request fora call routing function in a vendor neutral format from a program, therequest identifying at least a first ICR system to receive the request;preparing the request in a vendor specific format for transmission tothe at least a first ICR system, the vendor specific format selectedaccording to the format used by the at least a first ICR system;transmitting the request in the vendor specific format to the at least afirst ICR system over a network; responsive to receiving a response overthe network from the at least a first ICR system, converting theresponse into a vendor neutral format; and relaying the response in thevendor neutral format to the program.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe program is a Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) program,the vendor neutral format comprises a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)request and wherein the first ICR system is identified by the HTTPrequest.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the vendor specific format isnot an HTTP request.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the networkcomprises a dedicated connection to the at least a first ICR system andthe transmitting further comprises establishing a communication channelacross the dedicated connection.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thenetwork comprises a virtual connection to the at least a first ICRsystem and the transmitting further comprises establishing acommunication channel across the virtual connection.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising maintaining data specifying the vendorspecific format and the network for handling requests to the first ICRsystem and providing one or more programs for communicating in thevendor specific format of the network.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe program is a VoiceXML program and wherein the relaying comprisesgenerating one or more predetermined events and setting one or morevariables in the execution context of the VoiceXML program according tothe response.
 8. The method of claim 7, the one or more predeterminedevents comprises a transfer event and wherein the one or more variablesincludes a transfer number variable.
 9. An apparatus for supportingintelligent call routing (ICR) systems of at least a first vendor in avendor neutral fashion using a computer system, the apparatuscomprising: means for receiving a request for a call routing function ina vendor neutral format from a program, the request identifying at leasta first ICR system to receive the request; means for preparing therequest in a vendor specific format for transmission to the at least afirst ICR system, the vendor specific format selected according to theformat used by the at least a first ICR system; means for transmittingthe request in the vendor specific format to the at least a first ICRsystem over a network; means for converting the response into a vendorneutral format responsive to receiving a response over the network fromthe at least a first ICR system; and means for relaying the response inthe vendor neutral format to the program
 10. An electromagnetic waveformcomprising a computer program for supporting intelligent call routing(ICR) systems of at least a first vendor in a vendor neutral fashionusing a computer system, the computer program comprising: a first set ofinstructions for receiving a request for a call routing function in avendor neutral format from a program, the request identifying at least afirst ICR system to receive the request; a second set of instructionsfor preparing the request in a vendor specific format for transmissionto the at least a first ICR system, the vendor specific format selectedaccording to the format used by the at least a first ICR system; a thirdset of instructions for transmitting the request in the vendor specificformat to the at least a first ICR system over a network; a fourth setof instructions for converting the response into a vendor neutral formatresponsive to receiving a response over the network from the at least afirst ICR system; and a fifth set of instructions for relaying theresponse in the vendor neutral format to the program.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the third set of instructions further comprises a setof instructions for interfacing with a vendor provided programminglibrary.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the third set ofinstructions further comprises a set of instructions for interfacingwith a vendor provided application.
 13. An electromagnetic waveformcomprising a formatted uniform resource locator (URL) for requestingintelligent call routing (ICR) functionality in a vendor neutralfashion, the formatted URL comprising: a protocol specificationcomponent, the protocol specification specifying a protocol for makingrequests; an ICR system specification component; an ICR request typespecification component; and one or more data fields.
 14. Theelectromagnetic waveform of claim 13, wherein the protocol comprises ahypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
 15. The electromagnetic waveform ofclaim 13, wherein the one or more data fields include a telephoneidentifying information.
 16. The electromagnetic waveform of claim 13,wherein the ICR system specification component identifies an ICR systemby a logical name such that a computer program can identify a vendor forrespective ICR system from the logical name.
 17. The electromagneticwaveform of claim 13, wherein the electromagnetic waveform generated bya voice application program running on a voice browser and wherein theelectromagnetic waveform sent form the voice browser to a computer.